TED Conversations

Omar Thabit

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Between the "Big Bang" and now, how do we know that speed has been constant to say that the universe is 13.72 billion years for certain?

I am not so sure that i am here at this point in the life of universe and that life is what laws of physics upto to this point in my life actually are the same as when the universe strated and may change as future astronomers will observe? May be things have got here faster than 13.72 billion years and we are looking at wrong thing to determine the life of the universe...

Related Talks:
0
Share:
progress indicator

  • BaSH PR0MPT

    • 0
    Jun 16 2012: The last season only ended three weeks ago, we need a longer period of time to pass to make any functional observations.

  • Barry Palmer 50+

    • 0
    Jun 8 2012: The part of your question I would like to address is "for certain."

    I am not at all convinced that modern physics has formed an accurate model of the universe. We "know" that the speed of light is constant throughout the universe, but we have measured it only within the gravity well of the solar system. Why couldn't it be different outside the solar system? What data supports the accepted theory?

    A thought experiment: Suppose there is another civilization of humans in another galaxy, and they have reached the same level of technology that we have. They look out at the universe, as we do, and form a model of the universe. What are the chances that their model would match our model, considering that every single piece of data that they would be using would be different from our data?

  • Random Chance 30+

    • 0
    May 17 2012: The light we actually observe comes from sources that have not existed for a very long time. Not only that, but if they are in motion or were at that time, we are observing the light source from where they were, not where they are. If we could measure the source's movement, and predict accurately where it would be in or at a certain time, and we could get a reading from that, isn't it possible that would indicate a light speed that is almost instantaneous? Faster than what it is thought to be. In other words, measuring from more than one spot at the same time? Where it was, where it is, or should be, and where it will be. If a reading of a light source is successful, where it will be, is faster than the speed of light.

    Recently I recall an article that listed about ten new changes in understanding of the laws of physics, that, if proven, would change those laws and I think one of them was the speed of light.

    Obviously, I'm not even a super monkey so just trying to write out my thoughts was a real challenge.
    The best I can come up with is, "something's been constant and it's constantly coming and pushing something in front of it."
  • thumb

    Matthieu Miossec 100+

    • 0
    TED TranslatorAssociate
    May 16 2012: No matter what the speed of the expansion of the universe, the speed of light remains constant. The fact that we can observe light that's more than 10 billion light years away means that the universe has been around long enough for the light to reach us, so more than 10 billion years. There might be grounds for saying that the universe in fact started later (although there might be reasons that's not the case), but earlier doesn't seem possible.
Showing all 5 comments